After filtering through all the confrontation areas in Changping from north to south, Zhao Kuo still felt that the attack must be launched in the south. Only there can it be possible for one's own superior forces to come into play. In the narrow place in the north, there is only a pass, and even three to five thousand people would be too crowded, so naturally one's own military advantage cannot be used; while in the south, although there are mountains, the distance between the two walls can reach more than twenty miles, six or seven. A thousand steps, three attack formations a hundred steps apart on both sides are more than enough.
At the earliest time, Lian Po once pulled out 50,000 troops to fight in that area, but met with strong resistance from 40,000 Qin troops. In the end, he suffered a lot of losses during the retreat, and was almost taken advantage of by Bai Qi. Zhao Kuo visited the generals who participated in that battle and repeatedly listened to their understanding of the battle to ensure that the same mistakes would not be made again. Having made up his mind, Zhao Kuo took the guards of his retainers and began to inspect each camp. ——This is the homework he must complete every day.
Zhao Kuo demanded of himself in an almost strict way: he would rise every day at dawn when he heard the chickens, he would finish neatly when he heard the sound of drums, and he would order his troops outside the tent. Arrive at the corresponding military camp before and after breakfast and use the breakfast time to discuss today's combat plan with the officers. Put it into practice immediately after breakfast. During the entire battle, Zhao Kuo would watch the battle from the barrier. If anything happens in the camp, you can come here to see him to deal with it. Since he took the initiative, the Qin Army has not sent out small-scale troops to harass the Zhao Army's barrier in the past few days, and other areas have been very quiet.
The troops going to war will return to their original camp; and after dinner, the troops going to war tomorrow will move to this temporary camp. There were so many soldiers in need of training that only 30,000 to 40,000 troops had been trained in rotation over the past few days.
Zhao Kuo asked himself to take a short rest after dinner and have a regular meeting with the generals to discuss matters for the next day. Then he inspected all the battalions of the army, including those stationed in the back mountains. Changping's defense line is three hundred miles long, and there are 900 battalions with 450,000 people. Not counting the distance between camps, it is 900 miles. Since the veterans left, Zhao Kuo has spent the past few days inspecting all 900 battalions. He has to inspect at least 100 battalions every day. It was already late at night when he came back; he almost got up as soon as he lay down.
Today is the beginning of the second time. The twenty southernmost battalions that will attack tomorrow are the focus of his inspection today.
Leave the big tent and walk down the mountain. The first battalion in front of us is the temporarily formed battalion of Zhao Jun who just went into battle today and fought in six formations. Zhao Kuo walked into the camp, chatted with the newly appointed five hundred generals, and inspected the soldiers along the road between the bonfires on both sides. When the soldiers saw Zhao Kuo and his entourage coming, they all knelt down to greet them. Zhao Kuo returned the greeting with his hands crossed. Under the jumping firelight, these people all looked red and full of energy.
One battalion passed by, some entered the camp, and some just walked outside the camp, but the status of each battalion was in Zhao Kuo's eyes. It was about twenty miles from the main tent to the southern camp, and there were more than thirty camps packed together. It took about half an hour to walk to the south to attack the camps of each battalion.
This camp was squeezed out by Zhao Kuo, so that the troops who fought out of the wall every day could arrive one day in advance, familiarize themselves with their combat area, and draft a suitable combat plan.
When Zhao Kuo arrived, the army's two assistant generals, ten thousand-man generals and twenty five-hundred-man generals were patrolling the camp. When they saw Zhao Kuo arriving, they all greeted him with courtesy. Zhao Kuo asked them to put forward their opinions. This army does not have 10,000 generals. The two generals each stated their own tactical ideas. Generally speaking, they attacked in groups of 5,000 men. Zhao Kuo said: "What if we fight with two sides in one day?"
The two generals were a little uneasy. If only 5,000 men went out to fight, the two of them could gather together 5,000 men who were worthy of fighting. If 10,000 men went out to fight together, the old, weak, disabled soldiers, children of nobles, and scoundrels would all have to go into battle. , that might make some kind of joke. They found some excuses to excuse themselves, but Zhao Kuo firmly disagreed. The last two people said: "If the army doesn't practice for a long time, it may not be as good as it is!"
Zhao Kuo seemed to understand their thoughts and said: "If the army is not strict, it will not stand up. If you are in trouble, I will do it for you! I hope you will pass on my order: "If father and son are together, the father will be exempted; if brothers are together, the elder brother will be exempted. Exemption; only child is exempted! The rest will be fought every day! "
Under Zhao Kuo's supervision, the officers returned to the camp to rectify the soldiers.
According to the establishment, a battalion has one hundred shield soldiers, two hundred halberd soldiers, one hundred spear soldiers and one hundred archers. Among them, both shield soldiers and spear soldiers need to be selected to be strong men, while archers must be chosen by those who are good at shooting. Halberd soldiers have no special requirements and are generally miscellaneous soldiers. But in Changping, there were not enough bows and arrows, so the archers took up halberds and even sticks and became miscellaneous soldiers. Holding a shield and a spear is very physically demanding, and they can usually get more rations than the soldiers. As for these twenty battalions, almost none can be organized in this way. Most of them can only be regarded as miscellaneous soldiers. There are less than 2,000 people who are qualified to serve as shield soldiers and spear soldiers. According to conventional tactics, these 10,000 people can only It can organize a front that is a thousand people wide. Zhao Kuo said: "The Qin people also have no bows and arrows, but they can fight with halberd soldiers." So, for tomorrow's battle, we will send out 5,000 fairly regular 1,000 shield soldiers, 1,000 spear soldiers, 3,000 halberd soldiers, and 5,000 regular soldiers. A military formation composed entirely of halberdiers.
The training here took a lot of time. After eliminating the old, weak, fathers and brothers, only three thousand people remained in the real halberd formation. Zhao Kuo and others agreed on the attack plan.
After leaving the south, Zhao Kuo turned north again. There was a wide valley here with not steep mountains on both sides, making it a good battlefield. Whoever occupied the ridge on one side would have an overwhelming advantage over the army in the valley. . This characteristic makes both sides dare not use troops in this area. However, Zhao Kuo sometimes thought, if he sent a surprise army from here to attack Gaodu, would it be possible to succeed? But he didn't dare to try it easily, it was too risky!
Because the army had to be organized in the southern camp for a long time, Zhao Kuo did not inspect Shicheng. Instead, he went down the mountain in advance to inspect the camps placed in the valley. Going back through twists and turns from here, we inspected more than a hundred battalions that night. It was already midnight when we returned to the big tent. Zhao Kuo closed his clothes and fell down, falling asleep soundly.
The next day, Zhao Kuo came in and ordered the army to finish. Zhao Kuo announced that the three thousand Zhao soldiers who had made meritorious service in the battle yesterday would rise to supervise the battle. Anyone who shrank in battle would be killed in his formation! When the generals heard that a war supervisor had been set up, their expressions changed, and they all knew that a war was imminent!
Zhao Kuo led the three thousand supervising troops to the camp gate in the south and formed a formation along the mountain. These soldiers were originally good at fighting, and they received instructions from supervising the battle. Naturally, they were full of momentum and formed an extremely neat formation.
Flags and drums were set up on the ramparts, and the faces of the eight thousand soldiers who were preparing to leave the city to fight were tense and filled with nervousness. With the sound of drums, ten flag bearers rushed out of the camp fence and set up the flag gate. The main soldiers of the ten battalions rushed out and took up their positions.
The Qin army's five thousand troops on the opposite side have already formed their formation and are pressing forward. This time, the Zhao army did not retreat. After the formation was completed, when the Qin army came within a hundred steps, they bravely faced it and made a violent collision. The nine battalions met the enemy one after another, and each of them struck each other. The number of people stabbed and injured by halberds and spears increased rapidly. But this time, they did not add more, but gathered next to the middle camp and bandaged their wounds themselves.
When all nine battalions were hit and scattered, and were reorganizing, three thousand halberd soldiers suddenly poured out from the camp fence. They were basically not in a line, holding their halberds high and charging towards them with wild shouts. Seeing this, the Qin army who was reorganizing behind them called on their companions to rush forward in a scattered manner, causing a chaotic battle. At this time, whoever can form a partial attack of more and less will be able to take advantage; if he falls into the trap of using less to attack more, he will suffer a loss. But in general, the Qin army is more cooperative. A dozen or so people often form a fighting group to surround and kill the lone Zhao army. Zhao Jun suffered several losses, learned a lesson, and gathered into a large group of dozens or hundreds of people to prevent Qin Jun from having a chance to encircle and kill. At this time, the defeated Zhao army reorganized its troops and rejoined the battlefield. The Qin army fell into a melee, which delayed the entire team and was obviously at a disadvantage. The Qin army had no choice but to ring the bell and take the Qin army back.
This time, the nine well-organized Zhao military camps did not stop in front of the mountain, but resolutely launched an upward attack toward the mountain. The disorderly group of halberdiers also waved their halberds and shouted as they charged up the mountain from both sides.
There were a hundred archers in the middle camp of the Qin army on the mountain. They immediately shot the arrows in their hands. However, with thousands of people attacking, a hundred arrows were not enough. Although some people fell down after being hit by arrows, Zhao Jun, feeling that he had the upper hand, still rushed up the mountain with courage. The attacking public officer let out a long sigh and had no choice but to retreat.
The Zhao army that occupied the hilltop temporarily stopped in the mountain, reorganized its formation, and then rushed towards the Qin army. This time, the Qin Army's central camp failed to buy enough time for the scattered troops. Only a few Qin Army camps organized their troops and counterattacked against the Zhao Army, but they were quickly dispersed. The group of Zhao troops wielding halberds rushed towards the Qin army in a scattered manner, interrupting the rhythm of their entire team. Wang Lu had no choice but to send out 5,000 Qin troops as backup to block the Zhao army's attack and bring the defeated Qin army back to the camp. When Zhao Jun saw Qin Jun's reinforcements coming in, he stopped attacking and retreated to the starting point. The Qin army did not pursue it again.
If the Zhao army was tied with the Qin army in yesterday's battle, then today's battle can be regarded as a victory. Seeing that the Qin army took the initiative to withdraw after a confrontation for a while, the Zhao army also retreated into the barrier. The victorious Mao'er was as powerful as a tiger. This Zhao army was so arrogant that it was even more majestic than the supervising team on the mountain. Those fathers, brothers, old men and weak men who had not gone out to fight gathered in front of the door. When they saw them entering the wall, they all cheered loudly!
Zhao Kuo originally planned to fight for one day, but the battle ended after half a day. It seemed that he had taken advantage of it, and he was happy. He stood on the gate tower, expressed his condolences to the Zhao army who was arrayed downstairs, rewarded them for their bravery and alertness, and congratulated them on their hard-won victory!
The whole army cheered!
Zhao Kuo announced that all our troops will be fed twice as much today! It caused another round of jubilation.
The news that the Zhao army defeated the Qin army, and that an unfavorable Zhao army defeated the Qin army, quickly spread among the Zhao army, stirring everyone's hearts.
